The National Catholic Education Commission says Victorian Education Minister Ben Carroll has “grossly muddled” the facts on school funding.
In an interview with ABC News yesterday, Mr Carroll claimed the Commonwealth Government pays $8 in $10 of the Schooling Resource Standard (SRS) to non-government schools.
National Catholic Education executive director Jacinta Collins said parents in Catholic schools pay a large proportion of the SRS.
“The minister infers that the Commonwealth is paying for 80 per cent of the non-government SRS, when the truth is that all non-government school families are required by the Australian Education Act to contribute to the SRS through the Capacity to Contribute, reducing the amount governments pay to non-government schools,” Ms Collins said.
“By far the largest number of ‘private’ schools are Catholic schools serving the same communities as public schools.
“On average, Catholic school parents contribute 23.6 per cent of the SRS, with the Commonwealth contributing 60.7 per cent and the states and territories contributing only 15.6 per cent on average,” Ms Collins said.
“The truth is Catholic schools get more like $7.63 from both state and federal governments, whereas Victorian public schools currently get $9.10 from both state and federal governments.
“If Catholic school students were educated in the public system it would cost another $4.2 billion to taxpayers each year. This does not include the $2 billion in school building projects invested and paid for Catholic school families each year, or the infrastructure we have built and provided for Australian students over 200 years.”
Mr Carroll made the comments as he confirmed that Victoria had rejected the Albanese Government’s offer to increase its share of public school funding from 20 to 22.5 per cent.
Mr Carroll said the state Government wanted 25 per cent from the Commonwealth, leaving them in a “difficult” stalemate.
FULL STORY
Victorian Education Minister ‘grossly muddles facts’ on school funding (NCEC)
Victoria rejects federal government’s school funding offer, creating ‘difficult’ stalemate (By Sacha Payne, ABC News)
